A village club with 150 years behind it

The Recreation Ground

The Recreation Ground was given to the village in 1922 by the Mortimer family, who were keen supporters and players. The club moved there in early 1926 and has been at Mortimer Road ever since.

Like most villages, Capel had a number of local families who played for and supported the club and took up its various offices — which normally meant the job was theirs for many years. The minute book from the early 1930s shows Dr Ward Clark, the local doctor, as an active president. The Christmas family were the village bakers: Mr A Christmas was chairman and his son Ern a player. Mr E Ellis, publican of The Crown, was secretary, with his son Nobby playing. Bob Bell of Church Gardens Farm sat on the committee, and his services were sought every spring to roll the outfield. Bill Hayward, a local contractor and cousin to Charles Edwards senior, was captain.

In those days the umpire and scorer were elected, often by a vote. Playing members paid 6d (2½p) per match towards transport and an annual subscription of 3/- (15p). The accounts for 1933 show a deficit for the year of £6 6s 3d, on total income of £24 10s against expenditure of £30 16s 3d.

Turning the corner

The club's fortunes in the early 1960s were not good: the old players were stepping down and there were too few younger ones to take their place. Yet the clubs with whom we had our oldest fixtures would still say, “we always like playing at Capel — first-class wicket and excellent teas.”

Every dog has its day. Over the following 30 years Ron Grinstead, John Mitchell and Gof Squibb produced a crop of good young players; the poor spell was reversed and we had the beating of the best sides we played.

Another turning point came in 1983 with the introduction of the second eleven, which allowed young players to be blooded and acted as a feeder for the first team. Our fixtures were friendlies, played in a competitive spirit, mostly against local Surrey and Sussex clubs.

League cricket

At the 1995 AGM the club voted to join the Surrey Downs League, and was accepted. This brought competitive cricket, and the first eleven was not out of place in the new environment: it won the league in 1998 and again in 2000 — no mean feat for a side that was very nearly 100% local talent.

Today

The club is in a very strong position to progress both on and off the pitch — boys, girls and adults alike. Winter training programmes have expanded and participation has increased significantly, which has already shown in recent results. We have high expectations for what comes next.

Youth cricket

In 2001 the colts section was resurrected by Anthony Birch, Mark Jaques and Clay Griffin. They quickly qualified as ECB coaches and began working with a few children who came to Sunday morning coaching. Today we have over 150 colts registered and more than 20 qualified coaches.

In 2017 the under-8s won the West Surrey Cricket League, ably guided by Anthony Birch, and in the older age groups success was never far away, with six-a-side wins in three age groups and top-three finishes in most others right up to under-15. The club is proud to have had many players selected for Surrey and Sussex, girls and boys alike.